DIY Fairy House

You know how some DIY projects seem to take on a life of their own even though they seemed simple at the start?  That’s what happened with this fairy house I made from an unfinished wood birdhouse.  By the time I was finished, I had added a balcony, a handmade wind chime, and a split log bench.

I started with a plain, ordinary unfinished birdhouse. I chose this one because it had a set of hinged doors at the bottom, which meant I didn’t have to build them.  (Bonus!)  I started by painting the house brown, the roof green, and the doors white, using Americana Patio Paint.

I had envisioned some clay sunflowers along the side of the house. Fairy garden accessories hadn’t become widely available when I made my house, so I made what I needed from Sculpey clay.  I cut out the petals with a small teardrop shaped cutter, freehand cut and formed the leaves, and extruded the stems, then baked the clay and glued the flowers to the side of the house. The flower center texture was made using the tip of a closed pen pressed into flattened clay circles.

Then I decided to add a climbing vine along the front corner to add some detail to the other side of the house.  More extruded green clay made the vines, with small bits that I flattened and shaped to make leaves.  A tiny flower cutter created the pink flowers, which I curved around my pinkie finger for a little dimension.  I shaped the vines, estimating where they would go, baked the clay, and glued everything in place after the clay cooled.

You’d think after spending a night shaping clay flowers I’d be ready to streamline the rest of the process, but no.  

My fairy house had clay flowers, but only a plain wooden roof that didn’t look very natural.  I plucked some tiny rocks from my landscaping, glued them to the roof, and filled in the spaces between rocks using model tree foliage.

The roof helped it look more woodsy, but I still had a big hole in the front, making the house look more bird than fairy.  I decided to cover it with a little door made of sticks and a flower bead doorknob.  Perfect!  No more bird hole!  Except that I couldn’t get past the door opening into nothingness, so I built a balcony from small square wood dowels painted to match the house and glued it under the door.

So by now, after painting, clay flowers, clay vines, door and balcony, you might think I’d be finished.  But nope.  I couldn’t stop there.  My fairy house needed a whimsical windchime! 

So I made one from tiny aluminum pipe, turquoise wire, and a cute little mushroom charm as the top.  A flower charm and green bead made an ideal striker.

At this point, I think my family started questioning my sanity.  Especially when I started searching the yard for a fallen branch the right diameter for the split log bench I NEEDED for the side of the fairy house, and digging through our leftover landscaping slate for a base.

But it all worked, and I love it.  After moving it several times through that summer, this fairy house now lives indoors, adding its whimsy to my family room while protecting it from the elements.  This summer’s plans include a smaller scale complete fairy garden near the back patio.

I can’t wait to get obsessed started!

Thanks for stopping by!

Carla